Education: Using Minecraft to Introduce Kids to Java

May 24, 2014

Minecraft

Parents are always looking for new ways to connect with their kids. Science and Engineering education can be started at any age (Our desire to get our kids interested in Engineering is one of the reasons that Chris and I came up with TROBO!) While working as a Java Evangelist at Oracle, Arun Gupta noticed how his son was really into Minecraft. For those of you who don’t know, Minecraft is an incredibly popular online game that lets players build in a 3D world. When Gupta found out that Minecraft was built in Java, he saw an opportunity to connect with his son and teach him programming through Minecraft.

The next step was to bring it to a bigger audience so Gupta and his son put together a Minecraft Workshop which brought together 10 kids ages 10-14. Even though most of the kids had no prior programming experience, their love of Minecraft (and a lot of screen time) provided a rich canvas to learn about programming. Learn more here.

Graphical games are a great way to introduce kids to Technology and Engineering concepts (especially programming). There are a lot of great options out there including code.org and Scratch.

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